Methods and apparatus for providing hypervisor level data services for server virtualization

ABSTRACT

A system for cloud-based data services for multiple enterprises, including a plurality of cloud hypervisors that cooperatively provide cloud-based services to multiple enterprises, each hypervisor including a plurality of cloud virtual servers, each cloud virtual server being associated with an enterprise, at least one cloud virtual disk that is read from and written to by the at least one virtual server, each cloud virtual disk being associated with an enterprise, and a virtual data services appliance, which provides cloud-based data services, and multiple data services managers, one data services manager per respective enterprise, each of which coordinates the respective virtual data services appliances for those cloud hypervisors that service its corresponding enterprise.

CROSS REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 13/039,446, entitled METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING HYPERVISOR LEVEL DATA SERVICES FOR SERVER VIRTUALIZATION, filed on Mar. 3, 2011 by inventor Ziv Kedem, which claims priority benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/314,589, entitled METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING HYPERVISOR LEVEL DATA SERVICES FOR SERVER VIRTUALIZATION, filed on Mar. 17, 2010 by inventor Ziv Kedem.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to virtual server computing environments.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Data center virtualization technologies are now well adopted into information technology infrastructures. As more and more applications are deployed in a virtualized infrastructure, there is a growing need for recovery mechanisms to support mission critical application deployment, while providing complete business continuity and disaster recovery.

Virtual servers are logical entities that run as software in a server virtualization infrastructure, referred to as a “hypervisor”. Examples of hypervisors are VMWARE ESX manufactured by VMware, Inc. of Palo Alto, Calif., HyperV manufactured by Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash., XENSERVER® manufactured by Citrix Systems, Inc. of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Redhat KVM manufactured by Redhat, Inc. of Raleigh, N.C., and Oracle VM manufactured by Oracle Corporation of Redwood Shores, Calif. A hypervisor provides storage device emulation, referred to as “virtual disks”, to virtual servers. Hypervisor implements virtual disks using back-end technologies such as files on a dedicated file system, or raw mapping to physical devices.

As distinct from physical servers that run on hardware, virtual servers run their operating systems within an emulation layer that is provided by a hypervisor. Although virtual servers are software, nevertheless they perform the same tasks as physical servers, including running server applications such as database applications, customer relation management applications and MICROSOFT EXCHANGE SERVER®. Most applications that run on physical servers are portable to run on virtual servers. As distinct from virtual desktops that run client side applications and service individual users, virtual servers run applications that service a large number of clients.

As such, virtual servers depend critically on data services for their availability, security, mobility and compliance requirements. Data services include inter alia continuous data protection, disaster recovery, remote replication, data security, mobility, and data retention and archiving policies.

Conventional replication and disaster recovery systems were not designed to deal with the demands created by the virtualization paradigm. Most conventional replication systems are not implemented at the hypervisor level, with the virtual servers and virtual disks, but instead are implemented at the physical disk level. As such, these conventional systems are not fully virtualization-aware. In turn, the lack of virtualization awareness creates an operational and administrative burden, and a certain degree of inflexibility.

It would thus be of advantage to have data services that are fully virtualization-aware.

SUMMARY OF THE DESCRIPTION

Aspects of the present invention relate to a dedicated virtual data service appliance (VDSA) within a hypervisor that can provide a variety of data services. Data services provided by the VDSA include inter alia replication, monitoring and quality of service. The VDSA is fully application-aware.

In an embodiment of the present invention, a tapping filter driver is installed within the hypervisor kernel. The tapping driver has visibility to I/O requests made by virtual servers running on the hypervisor.

A VDSA runs on each physical hypervisor. The VDSA is a dedicated virtual server that provides data services; however, the VDSA does not necessarily reside in the actual I/O data path. When a data service processes I/O asynchronously, the VDSA receives the data outside the data path.

Whenever a virtual server performs I/O to a virtual disk, the tapping driver identifies the I/O requests to the virtual disk. The tapping driver copies the I/O requests, forwards one copy to the hypervisor's backend, and forwards another copy to the VDSA.

Upon receiving an I/O request, the VDSA performs a set of actions to enable various data services. A first action is data analysis, to analyze the data content of the I/O request and to infer information regarding the virtual server's data state. E.g., the VDSA may infer the operating system level and the status of the virtual server. This information is subsequently used for reporting and policy purposes.

A second action, optionally performed by the VDSA, is to store each I/O write request in a dedicated virtual disk for journaling. Since all I/O write requests are journaled on this virtual disk, the virtual disk enables recovery data services for the virtual server, such as restoring the virtual server to an historical image.

A third action, optionally performed by the VDSA, is to send I/O write requests to different VDSAs, residing on hypervisors located at different locations, thus enabling disaster recovery data services.

The hypervisor architecture of the present invention scales to multiple host sites, each of which hosts multiple hypervisors. The scaling flexibly allows for different numbers of hypervisors at different sites, and different numbers of virtual services and virtual disks within different hypervisors. Each hypervisor includes a VDSA, and each site includes a data services manager to coordinate the VSDA's at the site, and across other sites.

Embodiments of the present invention enable flexibly designating one or more virtual servers within one or more hypervisors at a site as being a virtual protection group, and flexibly designating one or more hypervisors, or alternatively one or more virtual servers within one or more hypervisors at another site as being a replication target for the virtual protection group. Write order fidelity is maintained for virtual protection groups. A site may comprise any number of source and target virtual protection groups. A virtual protection group may have more than one replication target. The number of hypervisors and virtual servers within a virtual protection group and its replication target are not required to be the same.

The hypervisor architecture of the present invention may be used to provide cloud-based hypervisor level data services to multiple enterprises on a shared physical infrastructure, while maintaining control and data path separation between enterprises for security.

The present invention provides bi-directional cloud-based data replication services; i.e., from the enterprise to the cloud, and from the cloud to the enterprise. Moreover, replication targets may be assigned to a pool of resources that do not expose the enterprise infrastructure, thus providing an additional layer of security and privacy between enterprises that share a target physical infrastructure.

The cloud-based data replication services of the present invention support enforcement of data export regulations. As such, data transfer between a source and a destination is automatically restricted if data export regulations restrict data transfer between the corresponding jurisdictions of the source and the destination.

There is thus provided in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention a system for cloud-based data services for multiple enterprises, including a plurality of cloud hypervisors that cooperatively provide cloud-based services to multiple enterprises, each hypervisor including a plurality of cloud virtual servers, each cloud virtual server being associated with an enterprise, at least one cloud virtual disk that is read from and written to by the at least one virtual server, each cloud virtual disk being associated with an enterprise, and a virtual data services appliance, which provides cloud-based data services, and multiple data services managers, one data services manager per respective enterprise, each of which coordinates the respective virtual data services appliances for those cloud hypervisors that service its corresponding enterprise.

There is additionally provided in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention a system for cloud-based data services for multiple enterprises, including a plurality of cloud hypervisors that cooperatively provide cloud-based services to multiple enterprises, each hypervisor including a plurality of cloud virtual servers, each cloud virtual server being associated with an enterprise, at least one cloud virtual disk that is read from and written to by the at least one virtual server, each cloud virtual disk being associated with an enterprise, and at least one virtual data services appliance, one virtual data services appliance per respective enterprise serviced by the hypervisor, which provides cloud-based data services to its respective enterprise, and multiple data services managers, one data services manager per respective enterprise, each of which coordinates the virtual data services appliances that service its respective enterprise.

There is further provided in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention a system for cloud-based data services for multiple enterprises, including a plurality of cloud hypervisors that cooperatively provide cloud-based services to multiple enterprises, each enterprise being located in a corresponding jurisdiction, and each hypervisor being associated with a corresponding jurisdiction, wherein each hypervisor includes a plurality of cloud virtual servers, each cloud virtual server being associated with an enterprise, and at least one cloud virtual disk that is read from and written to by the at least one virtual server, each cloud virtual disk being associated with an enterprise, and a rights manager that restricts access of an enterprise to a cloud hypervisor associated with the enterprise if there is a restriction to export data between the jurisdiction associated with the enterprise and the jurisdiction associated with the cloud hypervisor.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention will be more fully understood and appreciated from the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a simplified block diagram of a hypervisor architecture that includes a tapping driver and a virtual data services appliance, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a simplified data flow chart for a virtual data services appliance, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a simplified block diagram of a virtual replication system, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a simplified block diagram of a cross-host multiple hypervisor system that includes data services managers for multiple sites that have multiple hypervisors, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a user interface screenshot of bi-directional replication of virtual protection groups, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a user interface screenshot of assignment of a replication target for a virtual protection group, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is an example an environment for the system of FIG. 4, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a simplified block diagram of a system for multi-tenant and multi-site cloud-based data services, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a simplified block diagram of a first configuration for providing hypervisor level mufti-tenant cloud-based data services, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 10 is a simplified block diagram of a second configuration for providing hypervisor level mufti-tenant cloud-based data services, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 11 is a simplified block diagram of a system for multi-tenant and multi-site cloud-based data services with jurisdictional data separation, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

LIST OF APPENDICES

Appendix I is an application programming interface for virtual replication site controller web services, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

Appendix II is an application programming interface for virtual replication host controller web services, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

Appendix III is an application programming interface for virtual replication protection group controller web services, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

Appendix IV is an application programming interface for virtual replication command tracker web services, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention; and

Appendix V is an application programming interface for virtual replication log collector web services, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Aspects of the present invention relate to a dedicated virtual data services appliance (VDSA) within a hypervisor, which is used to provide a variety of hypervisor data services. Data services provided by a VDSA include inter alia replication, monitoring and quality of service.

Reference is made to FIG. 1, which is a simplified block diagram of a hypervisor architecture that includes a tapping driver and a VDSA, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. Shown in FIG. 1 is a hypervisor 100 with three virtual servers 110, three virtual disks 120, an I/O backend 130 and a physical storage array 140. Hypervisor 100 uses a single physical server, but runs multiple virtual servers 110. Virtual disks 120 are a storage emulation layer that provide storage for virtual servers 110. Virtual disks 120 are implemented by hypervisor 100 via I/O backend 130, which connects to physical disk 140.

Hypervisor 100 also includes a tapping driver 150 installed within the hypervisor kernel. As shown in FIG. 1, tapping driver 150 resides in a software layer between virtual servers 110 and virtual disks 120. As such, tapping driver 150 is able to access I/O requests performed by virtual servers 110 on virtual disks 120. Tapping driver 150 has visibility to I/O requests made by virtual servers 110.

Hypervisor 100 also includes a VDSA 160. In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, a VDSA 160 runs on a separate virtual server within each physical hypervisor. VDSA 160 is a dedicated virtual server that provides data services via one or more data services engines 170. However, VDSA 160 does not reside in the actual I/O data path between I/O backend 130 and physical disk 140. Instead, VDSA 160 resides in a virtual I/O data path.

Whenever a virtual server 110 performs I/O on a virtual disk 120, tapping driver 150 identifies the I/O requests that the virtual server makes. Tapping driver 150 copies the I/O requests, forwards one copy via the conventional path to I/O backend 130, and forwards another copy to VDSA 160. In turn, VDSA 160 enables the one or more data services engines 170 to provide data services based on these I/O requests.

Reference is made to FIG. 2, which is a simplified data flow chart for a VDSA, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. Shown in FIG. 2 are an I/O receiver 210, a hash generator 220, a TCP transmitter 230, a data analyzer and reporter 240, a journal manager 250 and a remote VDSA 260. Remote VDSA 260 resides on different physical hardware, at a possibly different location.

As shown in FIG. 2, I/O receiver 210 receives an intercepted I/O request from tapping driver 150. VDSA 160 makes up to three copies of the received I/O requests, in order to perform a set of actions which enable the one or more data services engines 170 to provide various services.

A first copy is stored in persistent storage, and used to provide continuous data protection. Specifically, VDSA 160 sends the first copy to journal manager 250, for storage in a dedicated virtual disk 270. Since all I/O requests are journaled on virtual disk 270, journal manager 250 provides recovery data services for virtual servers 110, such as restoring virtual servers 110 to an historical image. In order to conserve disk space, hash generator 220 derives a one-way hash from the I/O requests. Use of a hash ensures that only a single copy of any I/O request data is stored on disk.

An optional second copy is used for disaster recovery. It is sent via TCP transmitter 230 to remote VDSA 260. As such, access to all data is ensured even when the production hardware is not available, thus enabling disaster recovery data services.

An optional third copy is sent to data analyzer and reporter 240, which generates a report with information about the content of the data. Data analyzer and reporter 240 analyzes data content of the I/O requests and infers information regarding the data state of virtual servers 110. E.g., data analyzer and reporter 240 may infer the operating system level and the status of a virtual server 110.

Reference is made to FIG. 3, which is a simplified block diagram of a virtual replication system, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. Shown in FIG. 3 is a protected site designated Site A, and a recovery site designated Site B. Site A includes a hypervisor 100A with three virtual servers 110A-1, 110A-2 and 110A-3, and a VDSA 160A. Site A includes two physical disks 140A-1 and 140A-2. Site B includes a hypervisor 100B with a VDSA 160B. Site B includes two physical disks 140B-1 and 140B-2. All or some of virtual servers 110A-1, 110A-2 and 110A-3 may be designated as protected. Once a virtual server is designated as protected, all changes made on the virtual server are replicated at the recovery site.

In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, every write command from a protected virtual server in hypervisor 100A is intercepted by tapping driver 150 (FIG. 1) and sent asynchronously by VDSA 160A to VDSA 160B for replication, via a wide area network (WAN) 320, while the write command continues to be processed by the protected server.

At Site B, the write command is passed to a journal manager 250 (FIG. 2), for journaling on a Site B virtual disk 270 (FIG. 2). After every few seconds, a checkpoint is written to the Site B journal, and during a recovery one of the checkpoints may be selected for recovering to that point. Additionally, checkpoints may be manually added to the Site B journal by an administrator, along with a description of the checkpoint. E.g., a checkpoint may be added immediately prior to an event taking place that may result in the need to perform a recovery, such as a planned switch over to an emergency generator.

In addition to write commands being written to the Site B journal, mirrors 110B-1, 110B-2 and 110B-3 of the respective protected virtual servers 110A-1, 110A-2 and 110A-3 at Site A are created at Site B. The mirrors at Site B are updated at each checkpoint, so that they are mirrors of the corresponding virtual servers at Site A at the point of the last checkpoint. During a failover, an administrator can specify that he wants to recover the virtual servers using the latest data sent from the Site A. Alternatively the administrator can specify an earlier checkpoint, in which case the mirrors on the virtual servers 110B-1, 110-B-2 and 110B-3 are rolled back to the earlier checkpoint, and then the virtual servers are recovered to Site B. As such, the administrator can recover the environment to the point before any corruption, such as a crash or a virus, occurred, and ignore the write commands in the journal that were corrupted.

VDSAs 160A and 160B ensure write order fidelity; i.e., data at Site B is maintained in the same sequence as it was written at Site A. Write commands are kept in sequence by assigning a timestamp or a sequence number to each write at Site A. The write commands are sequenced at Site A, then transmitted to Site B asynchronously, then reordered at Site B to the proper time sequence, and then written to the Site B journal.

The journal file is cyclic; i.e., after a pre-designated time period, the earliest entries in the journal are overwritten by the newest entries.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the virtual replication appliance of the present invention operates at the hypervisor level, and thus obviates the need to consider physical disks. In distinction, conventional replication systems operate at the physical disk level. Embodiments of the present invention recover write commands at the application level. Conventional replication systems recover write commands at the SCSI level. As such, conventional replication systems are not fully application-aware, whereas embodiment of the present invention are full application-aware, and replicate write commands from an application in a consistent manner.

The present invention offers many advantages.

-   -   Hardware Agnostic: Because VDSA 160 manages recovery of virtual         servers and virtual disks, it is not tied to specific hardware         that is used at the protected site or at the recovery site. The         hardware may be from the same vendor, or from different vendors.         As long as the storage device supports the iSCSI protocol, any         storage device, known today or to be developed in the future,         can be used.     -   Fully Scalable: Because VDSA 160 resides in the hypervisor         level, architectures of the present invention scale to multiple         sites having multiple hypervisors, as described hereinbelow with         reference to FIG. 4.     -   Efficient Asynchronous Replication: Write commands are captured         by VDSA 160 before they are written to a physical disk at the         protected site. The write commands are sent to the recovery site         asynchronously, and thus avoid long distance replication         latency. Moreover, only delta changes are sent to the recovery         site, and not a whole file or disk, which reduces the network         traffic, thereby reducing WAN requirements and improving         recovery time objective and recovery point objective.     -   Control of Recovery: An administrator controls when a recovery         is initiated, and to what point in time it recovers.     -   Near-Zero Recovery Point Objective (RPO): VDSA 160 continuously         protects data, sending a record of every write command         transacted at the protected site to the recovery site. As such,         recovery may be performed within a requested RPO.     -   Near-Zero Recovery Time Objective (RTO): During recovery the         mirrors of the protected virtual servers are recovered at the         recovery site from VDSA 160B, and synchronized to a requested         checkpoint. In accordance with an embodiment of the present         invention, during synchronization and while the virtual servers         at the recovery site are not yet fully synchronized, users can         nevertheless access the virtual servers at the recovery site.         Each user request to a virtual server is analyzed, and a         response is returned either from the virtual server directly, or         from the journal if the information in the journal is more         up-to-date. Such analysis of user requests continues until the         recovery site virtual environment is fully synchronized.     -   WAN Optimization between Protected and Recovery Sites: In         accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, write         commands re compressed before being sent from VDSA 160A to VDSA         160B, with throwing used to prioritize network traffic. As such,         communication between the protected site and the recovery site         is optimized.     -   WAN Failover Resilience: In accordance with an embodiment of the         present invention, data is cached prior to being transmitted to         the recovery site. If WAN 320 goes down, the cached data is         saved and, as soon as WAN 320 comes up again, the data is sent         to the recovery site and both sites are re-synchronized.     -   Single Point of Control: In accordance with an embodiment of the         present invention, both the protected and the recovery site are         managed from the same client console.     -   Secure Mufti-Tenant Solution on Shared Hardware: The present         invention enables multiple enterprises to use shared hardware at         a recovery site for data replication, while maintaining security         between the enterprises, as described hereinbelow with reference         to FIGS. 9 and 10.

As indicated hereinabove, the architecture of FIG. 1 scales to multiple sites having multiple hypervisors. Reference is made to FIG. 4, which is a simplified block diagram of a cross-host multiple hypervisor system 300 that includes data services managers for multiple sites that have multiple hypervisors, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. The architecture of FIG. 4 includes three sites, designated Site A, Site B and Site C, the three sites being communicatively coupled via a network 320. Each site includes one or more hypervisors 100. Specifically, Site A includes three hypervisors, 100A/1, 100A/2 and 100A/3, Site B includes two hypervisors, 100B/1 and 100B/2, and Site C includes one hypervisor 100C/1. The sites have respective one or more physical disks 140A, 140B and 140C.

The hypervisors are shown in system 300 with their respective VDSA's 160A/1, 160A/2, . . . , and the other components of the hypervisors, such as the virtual servers 110 and virtual disks 120, are not shown for the sake of clarity. An example system with virtual servers 110 is shown in FIG. 7, and described hereinbelow.

The sites include respective data services managers 310A, 310B and 310C that coordinate hypervisors in the sites, and coordinate hypervisors across the sites.

The system of FIG. 4 may be used for data replication, whereby data at one site is replicated at one or more other sites, for protection. The solid communication lines 330 in FIG. 4 are used for in-site traffic, the dashed communication lines 340 are used for replication traffic between sites, and the dotted communication lines 350 are used for control traffic between data services managers.

Data services managers 310A, 310B and 310C are control elements. The data services managers at each site communicate with one another to coordinate state and instructions. The data services managers track the hypervisors in the environment, and track health and status of the VDSAs 160A/1, 160A/2, . . . .

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the environment shown in FIG. 4 may be re-configured by moving one or more virtual servers 110 from one hypervisor 100 to another, by moving one or more virtual disks 120 from one hypervisor 100 to another, and by adding one or more additional virtual servers 110 to a hypervisor 100.

In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, the data services managers enable designating groups of specific virtual servers 110, referred to as virtual protection groups, to be protected. For virtual protection groups, write order fidelity is maintained. The data services managers enable designating a replication target for each virtual protection group; i.e., one or more sites, and one or more hypervisors in the one or more sites, at which the virtual protection group is replicated. A virtual protection group may have more than one replication target. The number of hypervisors and virtual servers within a virtual protection group and its replication target are not required to be the same.

Reference is made to FIG. 5, which is a user interface screenshot of bi-directional replication of virtual protection groups, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. Shown in FIG. 4 are virtual protection groups 301 (“Exchange”), 302 (“WebApp”), 303 (“Dummy-R1”), 304 (“Windows 2003”) and 305 (Dummies-L″). Arrows 306 indicate direction of replication.

Reference is made to FIG. 6, which is a user interface screenshot of assignment of a replication target for a virtual protection group, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. Shown in FIG. 6 is an entry 307 for designating a recovery host, and an entry 308 for designating a recovery datastore for virtual protection group 304 (“Windows 2003”) of FIG. 5. Respective source and target datastores, [SAN ZeRTO-30] 309A and [datastore1] 309B, are shown as being paired.

More generally, the recovery host may be assigned to a cluster, instead of to a single hypervisor, and the recovery datastore may be assigned to a pool of resources, instead of to a single datastore. Such assignments are of particular advantage when different enterprises share the same physical infrastructure for target replication, as such assignments mask the virtual infrastructure between the different enterprises.

The data services managers synchronize site topology information. As such, a target site's hypervisors and datastores may be configured from a source site.

Virtual protection groups enable protection of applications that run on multiple virtual servers and disks as a single unit. E.g., an application that runs on virtual servers many require a web server and a database, each of which run on a different virtual server than the virtual server that runs the application. These virtual servers may be bundled together using a virtual protection group.

Referring back to FIG. 4, data services managers 310A, 310B and 310C monitor changes in the environment, and automatically update virtual protection group settings accordingly. Such changes in the environment include inter alia moving a virtual server 110 from one hypervisor 100 to another, moving a virtual disk 120 from one hypervisor 100 to another, and adding a virtual server 110 to a hypervisor 100.

For each virtual server 110 and its target host, each VDSA 160A/1, 160A/2, . . . replicates IOs to its corresponding replication target. The VDSA can replicate all virtual servers to the same hypervisor, or to different hypervisors. Each VDSA maintains write order fidelity for the IOs passing through it, and the data services manager coordinates the writes among the VDSAs.

Since the replication target hypervisor for each virtual server 110 in a virtual protection group may be specified arbitrarily, all virtual servers 110 in the virtual protection group may be replicated at a single hypervisor, or at multiple hypervisors. Moreover, the virtual servers 110 in the source site may migrate across hosts during replication, and the data services manager tracks the migration and accounts for it seamlessly.

Reference is made to FIG. 7, which is an example an environment for system 300, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 7, system 300 includes the following components.

Site A

Hypervisor 100A/1: virtual servers 110A/1-1, 110A/1-2, 110A/1-3. Hypervisor 100A/2: virtual servers 110A/2-1, 110A/2-2, 110A/2-3. Hypervisor 100A/3: virtual servers 110A/3-1, 110A/3-2, 110A/3-3.

Site B

Hypervisor 100B/1: virtual servers 110B/1-1, 110B/1-2, 110B/1-3. Hypervisor 100B/2: virtual servers 110B/2-1, 110B/2-2, 110B/2-3.

Site C

Hypervisor 100C/1: virtual servers 110C/1-1, 110C/1-2, 110C/1-3, 110C/1-4.

As further shown in FIG. 7, system 300 includes the following virtual protection groups. Each virtual protection group is shown with a different hatching, for clarity.

VPG1 (shown with upward-sloping hatching)

-   -   Source at Site A: virtual servers 110A/1-1, 110A/2-1, 110A/3-1     -   Replication Target at Site B: virtual servers 110B/1-1,         110B/1-2, 110B/2-1         VPG2 (shown with downward-sloping hatching)     -   Source at Site B: virtual servers 110B/1-3, 110B/2-2     -   Replication Target at Site A: virtual servers 110A/1-2, 110A/2-2         VPG3 (shown with horizontal hatching)     -   Source at Site A: virtual server 110A/3-3     -   Replication Target at Site B: virtual serer 110B/2-3     -   Replication Target at Site C: virtual server 110C/1-4         VPG4 (shown with vertical hatching)     -   Source at Site A: virtual servers 110A/1-3, 110A/2-3, 110A/3-2     -   Replication Target at Site C: virtual servers 110C/1-1,         110C/1-2, 110C/1-3

As such, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the hypervisor architecture of FIG. 1 scales to multiple host sites, each of which hosts multiple hypervisors. The scaling flexibly allows for different numbers of hypervisors at different sites, and different numbers of virtual services and virtual disks within different hypervisors.

The scaling flexibility of the present invention also allows extension to cloud-based data services provided by a cloud provider on a shared infrastructure, as explained hereinbelow.

Cloud-based data services enable data center providers to service multiple enterprises at data centers that are remote from the enterprises. Cloud-based data services offer many advantages. Enterprises that use cloud-based data services obviate the needs for servers, SAN/NAS, networks, communication lines, installation, configuration and ongoing maintenance of information technology systems, and overhead expenses for electricity, cooling and space. However, conventional cloud-based data suffer from weakness of security due to multiple enterprises sharing the same physical infrastructure, and due to multiple enterprises using the same networks and IPs for their services.

Cloud-based systems of the present invention overcome these weaknesses. Reference is made to FIG. 8, which is a simplified block diagram of a system 500 for mufti-tenant and mufti-site cloud-based data services, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. Shown in FIG. 8 are three enterprises, designated A, B and C, and a remote cloud-based facility 480 with two data centers, designated 1 and 2. Enterprise A uses a NETAPP data management system, Enterprise B uses an IBM data management system, and Enterprise C uses an EMC²® data management system. Data Center 1 uses an EMC²® data management system and services Enterprise A. Data Center 2 uses a NETAPP® data management system and services Enterprises B and C.

System 500 has many advantages over conventional data service systems. Inter alia, system 500 enables protection of heterogenic environments, enables remote control of enterprise sites, enables economies of scale, enables complete workload mobility, enables a complete web services API for seamless integration, and enables integration with other cloud-based management systems.

Reference is made to FIG. 9, which is a simplified block diagram of a first configuration of system 500 for providing hypervisor level multi-tenant cloud-based data services, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. The configuration shown in FIG. 9 includes two enterprises; namely, a smaller enterprise A and a larger enterprise B. Enterprise A infrastructure includes a single hypervisor 100A/1 with five virtual servers 100A/1-1, 100A/1-2, 100A/1-3, 100A/1-4 and 100A/1-5 and a VDSA 160A/1, includes two physical disks 120A-1 and 120A-2, and includes a data services manager 310A. Enterprise B infrastructure includes two hypervisors 100B/1 and 100B/2, includes three physical disks 120B-1, 120B-2 and 120B-3, and a data services manager 3106. Hypervisor 100B/1 includes five virtual servers 100B/1-1, 100B/1-2, 100B/1-3, 100B/1-4 and 100B/1-5 and a VDSA 160B/1; and hypervisor 100B/2 includes five virtual servers 100B/2-1, 100B/2-2, 100B/2-3, 100B/2-4 and 100B/2-5 and a VDSA 160B/2.

Cloud-based facility 480 infrastructure includes two hypervisors 400/1 and 400/2, and four physical disks 420-1, 420-2, 420-3 and 420-4. Hypervisor 400/1 includes six virtual servers 410/1-1, 410/1-2, 410/1-3, 410/1-4, 410/1-5 and 410/1-6; and hypervisor 400/2 includes two virtual servers 410/2-1 and 410/2-2. Hypervisor 400/1 services Enterprises A and B, and hypervisor 400/2 services Enterprise B. As such, the infrastructure of cloud-based facility 480 is shared between Enterprises A and B.

The configuration of FIG. 9 allocates one data services manager per enterprise and one VDSA per hypervisor. Specifically, hypervisor 400/1 includes a VDSA 460/1 and hypervisor 400/2 includes a VDSA 460/2. A data services manager 510A services Enterprise A, and a data services manager 510B services Enterprise B.

Reference is made to FIG. 10, which is a simplified block diagram of a second configuration of system 500 for providing hypervisor level mufti-tenant cloud-based data services, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. The configuration of FIG. 10 allocates one data services manager per enterprise and one VDSA per enterprise per hypervisor. Specifically, hypervisor 400/1 includes a VDSA 460A/1 for Enterprise A and a VDSA 460B/1 for Enterprise B, and hypervisor 400/2 includes a VDSA 460B/2 for Enterprise B.

The two different configurations shown in FIGS. 9 and 10 offer different advantages. The configuration of FIG. 9 minimizes the cloud footprint, by using only one data services manager per hypervisor, but offers less data path security for enterprises. Specifically, the infrastructure is shared between enterprises and security is enforced via software. The configuration of FIG. 10 maximizes data path security for enterprises, but the cloud footprint is larger, since multiple data services managers may be required per hypervisor.

As such, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the cloud-based hypervisor level data services systems of the present invention enable multi-tenancy and multi-side services; i.e., multiple enterprises and multiple sites may be serviced by the same physical infrastructure including inter alia the same hypervisors and storage. By providing each enterprise with its own data services manager, as in FIGS. 9 and 10, the systems of the present invention provide path separation between enterprises, thus ensuring that each enterprise is only able to view and access his own virtual servers and storage, and each enterprise can only control its own data replication. The systems of the present invention may be installed behind network address translators (NATs), and do not require a virtual private network (VPN). As such, these systems may obviate VPN setups for enterprises, and obviate use of public IPs.

The systems of the present invention provide bi-directional cloud-based data replication services; i.e., from an enterprise to the cloud, and from the cloud to an enterprise, for the same enterprise or for different enterprises, simultaneously using the same shared infrastructure. Moreover, replication targets may be set as resources that do not expose the enterprise infrastructure, thus providing an additional layer of security and privacy between enterprises.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that systems of the present invention may be used to enforce jurisdictional data export regulations. Specifically, cloud-based facility 480 infrastructure is partitioned according to jurisdictions, and data recovery and failover for an enterprise is limited to one or more specific partitions according to jurisdictional regulations.

Reference is made to FIG. 11, which is a simplified block diagram of a system 600 for mufti-tenant and mufti-site cloud-based data services with jurisdictional data separation, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. Shown in FIG. 11 are three jurisdictional enterprises; namely, a USA Enterprise A, a UK Enterprise B, and an APAC Enterprise C. Also shown in FIG. 11 are four data centers; namely, Data Center 1 and Data Center 2 in the USA, Data Center 3 in the UK and Data Center 4 in APAC.

Export regulations prevent data from being exported from one jurisdiction to another. In order to enforce these regulations, system 600 includes a rights manager 610 that blocks access to a data center by an enterprise if data export is regulations restrict data transfer between their respective jurisdictions. Thus rights manager 610 blocks access by Enterprise A to Data Centers 3 and 4, blocks access by Enterprise B to Data Centers 1,2 and 4, and blocks access by Enterprise C to Data Centers 1, 2, and 3. Enterprises A, B and C may be commonly owned, but access of the data centers by the enterprises is nevertheless blocked, in order to comply with data export regulations.

In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, when configuring a virtual protection group, an administrator may set a territory/data center restriction. When the administrator subsequently selects a destination resource for data replication for a virtual protection group, system 600 verifies that the resource is located in a geography that does not violate a territory/data center restriction.

The present invention may be implemented through an application programming interface (API), exposed as web service operations. Reference is made to Appendices I - V, which define an API for virtual replication web services, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

It will thus be appreciated that the present invention provides many advantages, including inter alia:

-   -   heterogeneous hypervisor replication, for different types of         sources and target hypervisor; e.g., from a VMWare hypervisor to         a Xen hypervisor;     -   heterogeneous storage replication, for different types of         storage systems; e.g., from an EMC storage system to a NetApp         storage systems;     -   bi-directional replication, whereby one enterprise may replicate         from the enterprise to a cloud data center, while another         enterprise simultaneously replicates from a cloud data center         back to the enterprise; and     -   security, whereby the cloud infrastructure is not exposed.

In the foregoing specification, the invention has been described with reference to specific exemplary embodiments thereof. It will, however, be evident that various modifications and changes may be made to the specific exemplary embodiments without departing from the broader spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims. Accordingly, the specification and drawings are to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense. 

1. A system for cloud-based data services for multiple enterprises, comprising: a plurality of cloud hypervisors that cooperatively provide cloud-based services to multiple enterprises, each hypervisor comprising: a plurality of cloud virtual servers, each cloud virtual server being associated with an enterprise; at least one cloud virtual disk that is read from and written to by said at least one virtual server, each cloud virtual disk being associated with an enterprise; and a virtual data services appliance, which provides cloud-based data services; and multiple data services managers, one data services manager per respective enterprise, each of which coordinates the respective virtual data services appliances for those cloud hypervisors that service its corresponding enterprise.
 2. The system of claim 1 wherein each enterprise comprises one or more virtual servers, wherein each of said data services managers designates a group of one or more of said cloud virtual servers as being a target virtual protection group for one or more virtual servers of its corresponding enterprise, and wherein the virtual data services appliance of each of said cloud hypervisors that comprises a cloud virtual data server belonging to a target virtual protection group of an enterprise, receives copies of write requests issued from one or more of the virtual servers of the enterprise.
 3. The system of claim 2 wherein the virtual data services appliance of each of said cloud hypervisors that comprises a cloud virtual data server belonging to a target virtual protection group of an enterprise, periodically applies the copies of write requests to one or more of said cloud virtual disks in the cloud hypervisor that are associated with the enterprise.
 4. The system of claim 2 wherein the target virtual protection group of an enterprise comprises cloud virtual servers from the same one of said cloud hypervisors.
 5. The system of claim 2 wherein the target virtual protection group of an enterprise comprises cloud virtual servers from more than one of said cloud hypervisors.
 6. The system of claim 2 wherein at least one of said cloud hypervisors comprises at least one cloud virtual server that belongs to a target virtual protection group for a first enterprise, and at least one cloud virtual server that belongs to a virtual protection group for a second enterprise.
 7. The system of claim 2 wherein each of said data services managers enables data recovery from the virtual servers of its enterprise to its enterprise target virtual protection group.
 8. The system of claim 2 wherein each of said cloud hypervisors further comprises a tapping driver in communication with its said at least one cloud virtual server, wherein said tapping driver intercepts I/O requests made by any one of its said at least one cloud virtual server to any one of its said at least one cloud virtual disk, and wherein its said virtual data services appliance receives the intercepted I/O requests from said tapping driver, and provides its cloud-based data services therefrom.
 9. The system of claim 8 wherein each of said data services managers enables data recovery from its enterprise target virtual protection group to the virtual servers of its enterprise.
 10. A system for cloud-based data services for multiple enterprises, comprising: a plurality of cloud hypervisors that cooperatively provide cloud-based services to multiple enterprises, each hypervisor comprising: a plurality of cloud virtual servers, each cloud virtual server being associated with an enterprise; at least one cloud virtual disk that is read from and written to by said at least one virtual server, each cloud virtual disk being associated with an enterprise; and at least one virtual data services appliance, one virtual data services appliance per respective enterprise serviced by the hypervisor, which provides cloud-based data services to its respective enterprise; and multiple data services managers, one data services manager per respective enterprise, each of which coordinates the virtual data services appliances that service its respective enterprise.
 11. The system of claim 10 wherein each enterprise comprises one or more virtual servers, wherein each of said data services managers designates a group of one or more of said cloud virtual servers as being a target virtual protection group for one or more virtual servers of its corresponding enterprise, and wherein each one of the virtual data services appliances for an enterprise, that resides within a cloud hypervisor that comprises a cloud virtual data server belonging to the target virtual protection group of the enterprise, receives copies of write requests issued from one or more of the virtual servers of its enterprise.
 12. The system of claim 11 wherein each one of the virtual data services appliances for the enterprise, that resides within a cloud hypervisor that comprises a cloud virtual data server belonging to the target virtual protection group of the enterprise, periodically applies the copies of write requests to one or more of said cloud virtual disks in the cloud hypervisor that are associated with the enterprise.
 13. The system of claim 11 wherein the target virtual protection group of an enterprise comprises cloud virtual servers from the same one of said cloud hypervisors.
 14. The system of claim 11 wherein the target virtual protection group of an enterprise comprises cloud virtual servers from more than one of said cloud hypervisors.
 15. The system of claim 11 wherein at least one of said cloud hypervisors comprises at least one cloud virtual server that belongs to a target virtual protection group for a first enterprise, and at least one cloud virtual server that belongs to a virtual protection group for a second enterprise.
 16. The system of claim 11 wherein each of said data services managers enables data recovery from the virtual servers of its enterprise to its enterprise target virtual protection group.
 17. The system of claim 11 wherein each of said cloud hypervisors further comprises a tapping driver in communication with said at least one virtual server, which intercepts I/O requests made by any one of its said at least one virtual server to any one of its said at least one virtual disk, and wherein its said at least one virtual data services appliance receives the intercepted I/O requests from said tapping driver, and provides its cloud-based data services therefrom.
 18. The system of claim 17 wherein each of said data services managers enables data recovery from its enterprise target virtual protection group to the virtual servers of its enterprise.
 19. A system for cloud-based data services for multiple enterprises, comprising: a plurality of cloud hypervisors that cooperatively provide cloud-based services to multiple enterprises, each enterprise being located in a corresponding jurisdiction, and each hypervisor being associated with a corresponding jurisdiction, wherein each hypervisor comprises: a plurality of cloud virtual servers, each cloud virtual server being associated with an enterprise; and at least one cloud virtual disk that is read from and written to by said at least one virtual server, each cloud virtual disk being associated with an enterprise; and a rights manager that restricts access of an enterprise to a cloud hypervisor associated with the enterprise if there is a restriction to export data between the jurisdiction associated with the enterprise and the jurisdiction associated with the cloud hypervisor.
 20. The system of claim 19 further comprising a user interface for specifying pairs of jurisdictions that are restricted from transferring data therebetween, and wherein said rights manager restricts access based on the pairs of jurisdictions specified via said user interface. 